Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Legal Services Board joins the UK Regulators Network
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has joined the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) as an observer member. It will take a specific interest in UKRN projects that support the LSB’s regulatory objectives in particular: understanding affordability across sectors; regulating for quality; consumer engagement; and organisational development.
The LSB is the independent body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. Its goal is to reform and modernise the legal services market place by putting the interests of consumers at the heart of the system, reflecting the objectives of the statute that created it, the Legal Services Act 2007. It shares its regulatory objectives with the ‘approved regulators’ of the legal profession, each of which have direct responsibility for the day-to-day regulation of the different types of lawyers.
LSB chief executive, Chris Kenny said:
"I am delighted that we have joined UKRN. Whilst the LSB’s role is different in kind to that of the economic regulator members of UKRN, our mutual responsibilities to protect and promote the interests of consumers and promote competition means there is much we have in common and much we can learn from each other. We look forward to being able to share experience and thinking across the community of regulators."
ENDS
For further information, please contact LSB Communications Manager Vincent McGovern / 020 7271 0068 or UKRN Manager Gurpreet Sahota.
Notes for editors:
- UKRN is a network including the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Office of Communications (Ofcom), the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), Office of Water Regulation (Ofwat), the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) and the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation (UREGNI).
Monitor, the sector regulator for health, participates in the network and its projects as appropriate. The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) is a contributing member which generally participates in projects as an observer. - Further information on the UK Regulators Network can be found on its website.
- The Legal Services Act 2007 created the LSB as a new regulator with responsibility for overseeing the regulation of legal services in England and Wales. The new regulatory regime became active on 1 January 2010.
- The LSB oversees nine approved regulators, which in turn regulate individual legal practitioners. The approved regulators, designated under Part 1 of Schedule 4 of the 2007 Act, are the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Master of the Faculties, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, the Association of Costs Lawyers and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
In addition, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants are listed as approved regulators in relation only to reserved probate activities. - As at 1 April 2014, the legal profession comprised 138,243 solicitors, 326 alternative business structures, 15,279 barristers, 7,927 chartered legal executives and 5,404 other individuals operating in other areas of the legal profession such as conveyancing. The sector was valued at £29.2 billion in 2013 (total turnover).